Mobile Astronomy Applications Guide for Apple + Android SmartPhones

Please find below a list of 140 fully space-related mobile applications for hand-held devices. What started off as a quick search for a few space-related apps, ended up in pretty serious research to get a comprehensive list of all available space-apps in April 2012.

One of the most notable apps is 'Venus Transit'. Make sure you check into that one! The next transit of Venus in June will be the last of your lifetime!

The Desert Research And Technology Studies virtual test site 3-D models with topography and satellite imagery to bring the Arizona analog environment to your device. Navigate avatars around base camp to see field tests of NASA hardware, etc.

There are a few variables in predicting ISS passes. For instance, when is the sun considered low enough below your horizon for you to be able to see the ISS? And is the start of a pass timed from the moment it comes up from behind the horizon, or when it is at the minimum altitude (in our case, 11 degrees)?

A difference of two minutes is unusually big though, I think. If you see that again, let me know. It would be interesting to compare results in these cases. I have benchmarked our data to that of Heavens-Above.com and those matched really well.

It could be the height. Twisst does not take the elevation of your location into account at the moment. I think our system uses a default of 20 meters. That could account for some difference.

Maybe the locations you enter at the different sites accounts for some difference too. Twisst geocodes the location in your Twitter profile. If that process results in slightly different coordinates than you use at the other sources, than you would expect a couple of seconds difference here and there.

Jaap, you may have answered this already, but I am wondering why I get diffierent information with nearly every site I check. I use the same geographical location, but when I compare your times (height and so on), other sites (the NASA Sighting Opportunities page, Spaceweather.com and Heavens Above), they are usually a little different by a minute or two (or a few degrees). I have not compared these to real sightings, but I am just curious why the sites would all have different times.